Mothers. I need help.
I have a full blown dummy addict. It was never my plan to give her a dummy. Not because I disagree on principle but because I didn’t think that she would need it and knew that it would mean extra cleaning and sterilising.
However, I was advised to have dummies in ‘just incase’ and sure enough one desperate night when she was eight weeks old, I caved. It was great. Bliss even. My poor nipples got a well deserved break and she would fall asleep sucking on that wonderful plastic baby plug. Parenting win. Or so I thought.
At four and a half months, my best friend (the dummy) has turned on me and it is now my worst enemy. It has snuck it’s way into our lives and now B is totally dependant. There is no way that I am leaving the house unarmed. I always have a dummy and a spare on me.
But now that she can grab (well done Belle!) she is constantly playing with the dummy as she settles to sleep, grabbing it, dropping it and then crying. She is at that in-between age where she can take it out but she cannot put it back in. Which means that I spend the whole night listening for the dummy to drop, searching for the dummy, putting it back in her mouth and then holding her hands out of the way until she falls back to sleep so that she doesn’t knock it out again. This is happening every 20 minutes or so. I am exhausted ?
Take it away I hear you say? Easier said than done. How do you wean a baby from a dummy? Does it just get harder the longer you leave it?
Should I take it away and go cold turkey or just keep going until she can put it back in on her own? When even is that? Also, weaning her off it when I am more sleep deprived than my usual sleep deprived self seems like a bad decision.
I don’t know what to do.
Mums. Do any of you have a dummy addict? Any ideas/advice/tips?
